Transcript

LIBRARIAN:      What kind of books do you like to read? Here’s a list to look at

ANGELA:          Oh, it’s varied from time to time, but I always like to relax and learn about other countries I might visit one day. I don’t like anything too heavy or serious and love lessons about animals and the environment. I’m not really into sports very much.

LIBRARIAN:      Anything else?

ANGELA:          Oh..I do like entertaining at home, you know, dinner parties, I suppose you have something for me in that line. The pictures in those books always make me hungry. Although they never turn out exactly like they look in the books.

LIBRARIAN:      Fine. I think that’s all I need now.

That brief outline takes us to the beginning of the twentieth century, and now we’ll turn to housing.

At the beginning of the century, living conditions for the majority of working people in East London were very basic indeed. Houses were crowded closely together and usually very badly built, because there was no regulation. But the poor and needy were attracted by the possibility of work, and they had to be housed. It was the availability, rather than the condition, of the housing that was the major concern for tenants and landlords alike.

Few houses had electricity at this time, so other sources of power were used, like coal for the fires which heated perhaps just one room. Of course, the smoke from these contributed a great deal to the air pollution for which London used to be famous.

A tiny, damp, unhealthy house like this might well be occupied by two full families, possibly including several children, grandparents, aunts and uncles.